Posture inside the guard. Lean back, on toes, hands by the hip, slight back curve. Can open fairly easy from here, due to all that pressure on their ankles. Raise a knee, angle in, posting hand on arm. Other arm, elbow to knee. You can lean into them too, swan hands around triceps, hopping up to pass. Leaning forwards. Head towards mat.
With the squishy leaning forwards pass, head right on the mat, don't lift. Lead with your hip. Head post on the side you're NOT passing, use head to drag their head back (not your elbow, at least initially). Keep hips low, will eventually need to switch hips to maintain that pressure. Wriggle leg over shin to get past their leg.
Sequence is lean back one, then pin wrists. They free one, leg up on that side. Then into swan hands and pass.
Side control, basics. Then on Sunday, dealing with underhooks. This was cool, but it didn't take as much for me to make some kind of sense of it, I do similar things already in side control. The one I was waiting for came on the last day, back escapes. The focus was on the 'panda', where you're sat with your legs outstretched, leaning forwards. I've been trying this a lot in sparring, as part of the running escape > turtle > panda sequence.
In panda, lean way forward, grabbing their hooking feet to disconnect the hips, elbows inside. You can then do Saulo's classic scoop escape, but be careful if you still have the feet: stresses their knee. Or at least, I felt a twinge when my partner moved forwards quickly in that position, so I had to ask them to let go of my feet to do it.
You can also pull leg across and turn to step up. If they're close enough, you can reach back to grab their head after controlling their leg, then turn. Go to over under instead if their back is too straight to grab the head. Be careful of the triangle though, if you aren't turned.
With harness, get one leg off, underhook their leg and turn. Don't let them cross their feet over your arm. Can also grab head, turning your body to avoid chokes/armbar, twist and pull in their head, then turn to the top.
Priit had a two hour open mat to finish, so I took the opportunity to ask for pointers on that Priit sequence I've been playing with since last November. First thing from running escape, hide knee inside your leg, curled in. Turn your head down to the mat (I think? Odd, must be a reason). When turning to turtle, cover the near hook with arm, so you have a block if they try to sneak the near hook under. Walk legs away to create an angle before you turn turn to turtle.
İn turtle, turn head towards them, knees wide. When you want to move to panda, you can do as usual. You can also post your outside arm (they can't grab it, after all), or across with your arm, using that to get to butterfly. Something to play with until I can check with Priit again.
On an unrelated note, my awesome hosts were Jenny and Rich, whose beagles are adorable! :D
Class #970 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Kirsty Wynne, Bristol, UK - 15/04/2018
I don't normally get to train on Mondays now as I have carved that out as an evening to spend with my partner, but as she was busy this evening anyway, I took the opportunity to experience a fundamental class taught by Kirsty. I'm very glad I did, as it was excellent. Ever since I managed to tempt Kirsty onto the instructor team, I've been getting rapturous feedback from students. It is well justified, judging by tonight. In the course of about 10 minutes, I understood more about turtle defence then I did after 12 hours with Priit. That goes to show what a difference teaching styles make, when one happens to fit you well: brilliant stuff, Kirsty! :D
She began her class with a series of drills, to get you used to the motions in Priit Turtle. First, sit on the ground with your legs stretched in front of you. Curl in your right leg, so that the foot is by your left thigh. Then curl back your left leg, so that your foot is pointing behind you (so, sort of like a hurdlers stretch). Bring your head to the mat in front of your right leg. Use that balance to switch your legs, rotating them in the other direction to previously, returning to your starting position. Repeat on the other side.
Next, start in the Priit Turtle position, with your head, toes and knees on the mat, elbows tucked back. Straight your right leg, then fall towards your left leg. You're now back into a similar position from the previous drill, so can again rotate your legs in order to end up in that seated position with your legs outstretched (which Priit calls the 'passive turtle', or more evocatively, the 'panda').
In order to defend from here, you need to stay active with your arms defending, stopping them getting a seatbelt, as well as using your elbows to dislodge any attempt to get a hook with their leg. If they swing a leg high enough, to try and circumvent your arms, bring both arms underneath their leg. Lean forwards and base on your head, then turn over their leg. As you do, pin that leg with your trailing shin, staying tight to their leg. Windscreen wiper your other leg over the top. Bring your inside hand through, so that you can put your first on the mat by their hip. This is to stop them bringing their knee through as you move around to side control.
You could potentially bring your arm under, in order to get to something like that headquarters passing position I talked about with Paulina a few weeks ago. However, as Kirsty pointed out, that could leave you at risk of a triangle from underneath side control, because your head is low enough that with a small push, then can pop over your arm with their leg. A safer option is to get your arm in front to bodylock instead, which has the added advantage of preventing them from being able to escape their hip in that direction. This means you've blocked off both hips, making the pass much easier.
Great class, I hope I can make it down to more Monday sessions with Kirsty.
Class #927 Fighting Fit, Priit Mihkelson, Stafford, UK - 26/11/2017
You have one leg up, same side arm in the hip, defending. Other knee is down, on toes, then hand down. There was a lot of detail on counters to various common attempts at breaking it, like hooks and the like. Switching sides is one good broad purpose defence, often putting them in your guard. It fits in nicely with the same posture Priit uses inside closed guard: everything about his system is satisfyingly cyclical.
Class #926 Fighting Fit, Priit Mihkelson, Stafford, UK - 26/11/2017
Just as he said later in the seminar, it was better having already seen it before. I got way more out of it this time. Though he mentioned he was going to talk more about open guard later. Same position as open guard, flipped. So, elbows same place, everything is the same. You're not blocking on your neck, your elbows are in your thighs.
Triangle of base, make sure you have toes on the mat. Look to the side they're on, but only a slight turn. Toes very important, if they try and pull, you need to be able to adjust. Be aware that toe flexibility can be a problem, such as when they put pressure into back of your legs. Try to samurai sit, toes on the mat, could be good for posture too. Good idea on coaching, sit like that when watching a demonstration. Same with Asian squat, or stretching out the hips, that's worth mentioning when I teach next. If they try to pull legs up when facing the other way, spin.
When they hook, just straighten your leg and turn. Could be you fall to panda, or you go to guard. Or, straighten your leg to put their hook off. You might need to brush it off with your foot too. Some other postures, fall to your side on your elbow, outside leg up, inside knee towards them. Outside arm is in tight, elbow still where it was before. Frame with that arm, then you can move to pull guard.
Don't let them connect their hands. If they start to push through, your blocks should give you enough time to react. If they reach (e.g., for a guillotine), you can grab their hand, grabbing their wrist with the other hand. That gives you a strong position. Also, grabbing wrist and elbow, pushing foot into hip. You could also fall with a straight leg. Can also try outside foot inside their knee, use that as a block.
Then there is the importance of wrist fighting. Block their wrists of they try to get their hands in. Cover the fingers with your hands. Or even the web between thumb and finger. You don't want them to link their hands. Keep your elbows on your hips, I think.
If they try to put a hook on, pry off with elbow. Or, you could go double under with your arms to block it. It may also give you the opportunity to turn into guard. Nice drill: on granby when next to them, turn your near shoulder right over to where your outside shoulder was, then granby roll. Can do that drill side to side.
The same panda position can work when facing them too. Just keep that space controlled, don't let them in. It applies to combat base too also butterfly guard. He might do a seminar on that too some time, leading with the head and head fighting. The forward panda is basically butterfly guard. Great philosophical point, you learn how to pass from the process of passing the guard, not from actually getting past the guard.
From turtle, put your arm across to your other shoulder range on the mat, same side leg out over there, straight into panda. Then he moved into side control too, same kind of posture. Not sure I got it, but Heidelcamp vids should help. Hooking over your leg into the back of their knee when they try to hook. Try and block it. It was fun and sparring with Steph, against her panda. Hooking the leg helped, but watch out for the fireman's carry/kata guruma.
Class #678 Artemis BJJ (MYGYM Bristol), Open Mat, Bristol, UK - 08/11/2015
For Laura's last open mat, we ended up doing a fair bit of sparring, as well as getting in some good drilling too, finishing off with a super tasty meal. Perfect! That began with some comp prep sparring for Paul, with Simon and then a visiting purple belt (who as ever had lots of handy tips). Meanwhile, I was practicing turtle escapes, so I can decide which one to teach next week.
After reading my old notes and checking some videos from the Grappler's Guide, I think that the best option is probably the step behind and cut under. They are on the side of your turtle. Step your inside leg behind them, cutting the other knee into theirs (your knee slightly ahead of theirs, I think). Finally, bring your inside arm to their opposite hip. Turn through, which should mean you either manage to roll them over and end in side control (if they are your size of smaller), or recover guard.
Tom Barlow's tip from the Chelsea seminar was handy too, as well as simple: cross your feet over either of theirs. Again, that enables you to spin into guard. I did plenty of sparring with Laura after that, having a look at her technical mount escapes. I've also been playing with the triangle from the back, when you can get your leg under one arm and the other over their shoulder (similarly configuration to the seatbelt grip, in other words). I've only managed it on smaller training partners up until now, but it seems like a handy option to have up your sleeve.
After training, we indulged in one of life's great pleasures: pie. Specifically, Pieminister pie, which remains my favourite place to eat in Bristol. MYGYM is only a seven minute walk from the Stokes Croft original Pieminister restaurant: I've therefore decided that #ArmbarAndPie should become a regular thing! Expect lots more pie to be eaten post-training in the future. :D
Class #595 Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 25/09/2014
Fairly straightforward class tonight, with an escape from turtle that essentially involved turning to half guard. I'm not sure I quite got all the details, especially as I'm writing this up a few days later, but the situation is that they have one hook in. First, be careful to block their other hook creeping in, keeping your elbow tight.Turn towards the side they've hooked, spinning towards the floor rather than towards the ceiling. Immediately secure an underhook, putting you into half guard.
In sparring, I was with a strong white belt, playing around with the back take option Dónal showed earlier. I was a bit uncertain about it on Tuesday, but it was working great today. However, I need to grip higher. I was just grabbing whatever bits of gi I could and then rolling over their shoulder. I should have been grabbing right under their armpits and pulling the gi in tight there before rolling, so I'll work on that next time.
Underneath, I went for the wing escape a few times, but generally stayed lazy and just clamped in tight. Once he gave me some space, I grabbed the leg and went to half guard. A few times, I ended up wrapping the bottom of both his legs with mine and then wriggling back into guard, which was a bit random.
With Rafal, I got into the gi tail grip nice and deep, but wasn't able to do much with it. I looked for the choke, then I thought about sweeping, failing to get the post/posture/leverage thing yet again. Finally I thought maybe a triangle, perhaps by digging my leg in and then kicking out. I got confused as to grips: fortunately for me, all was about to become clear.
Dónal had been watching, so I got a quick refresher on the private he taught me a while back about gi tail attacks, with some extra details. The main addition was using their arm to choke them when you can't get into the standard gi tail choke. Reach across with your free hand to grab their elbow, pulling that across your body. I had tried to do that in sparring, but I was just pulling the elbow backwards, thinking about triangles without being in position.
Instead, you do pull it back, but you're just opening it. You've reached right across to grab it. Turn, moving that elbow to your other hip, where you can clamp in with your body to keep it in place. Push off their arm-side hip to scoot your hips out, which will enable you to trap their arm even more. At that point, pulling on the gi tail should result in a choke, combined with pressing into their trapped arm.
The triangle is an option too, but rather than pulling the arm out to get my knee in, you can instead kick the leg down, then swing it around. They aren't normally defending against the leg in that direction, so it's a higher percentage approach.
Class #594 Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 23/09/2014
Turtle escapes today and as ever, Dónal had some useful drills in the warm-up. To simulate trapping the arm and rolling, reach your elbow back and clamp from turtle, then kick back your same side leg and roll through. For a motion directly related to the technique today, again start in turtle. This time, base on your elbow, then step up your opposite side leg. Kick your other leg through, as if going to half guard. To make the drill flow, swivel through back to turtle, facing the other way compared to before.
Dónal also ran through a simple back take, though I think it may be a little hard on the neck (at least when drilling: may have been something else, but my neck was sore afterwards). Clamp onto their back, squeezing your knees to their hips. Reach in to grab both their collars, quickly pulling back so they can't hook an arm. Roll over their shoulder, then pull them over the top. You'd think that would require lots of strength, but the leverage makes it surprisingly easy.
The main techniques for tonight were some magical Irish ways to escape the turtle. Or at least, they seemed pretty magical: I think I may have seen it before, but couldn't find anything in the slideyfoot.com archives. Normally in turtle, my approach is to stay really tight and basically just wait until there is some space. Dónal's method was a great pro-active alternative. It feels counter-intuitive, but works really well.
Essentially, as they try to move to your side from the front of your turtle, all you do is stick out an arm (your 'wing') on that side, thumb pointing down. Hold it around the level of their hip and don't straighten it. That motion reminds me a bit of how Braulio finishes his running escape, though for this turtle escape, your 'wing' is considerably lower. Also, don't try to wrap up their leg with that arm, keep it straight. By this point, they're already by your side, so single leg attempts etc will likely just put your arm in danger of getting attacked.
That outstretched arm acts as a barrier, preventing them from establishing hip-to-hip contact. As with side control as various other positions, if they can't get their hip next to yours (or alternatively, a knee/elbow/hand by your hip), it considerably reduces their control. You can then do the same motion as in that earlier drill, bringing your leg through to establish a hook. Even better, your arm is already in place to immediately become an underhook, meaning you move right into a strong half guard.
If they are moving to the side from behind you, then a different turtle escape comes into play. The idea is similar, but this time rather than blocking their hip with your arm, you're going to use your leg. Place your instep/shin by their opposite hip: it will be the near side hip for whichever side they're moving towards (i.e., if they're moving to your right, use your right leg to hook their opposite hip). Though you don't have to wait for them to move to your side, as you can move into this position if they're directly behind you too.
Once you have that foot in place, you have two options. The simple version is to swivel underneath, towards the side they're trying to reach, putting you right into a strong open guard. Your knee will already be in place to block them and provide some distance control, then you can back that up by framing your arms and bringing your other leg to bear. The more complex option is a bit higher risk, but you get higher potential reward.
This time, grab their trouser leg on the inside, reaching through your own legs (this is key: if you don't get that grip, they can avoid this technique fairly easily). You can then swing your non-hooking leg over the top, so swivelling in the other direction compared to the previous guard recovery. That ends up potentially putting them right into your triangle, but on the downside if you mess it up, they're now in a good spot to pass.
Sparring started off with a white belt who has a fairly intense style, so I went with my usual approach in that situation, aiming to lock him down from guard (ideally I want to get on top and smother them in side control, but that's not always easy with strong, aggressive training partners). I was able to get the overhook guard, clamping down. I had a look for some kind of sweep (again, that post/posture/leverage idea from the Gregoriades/Dale instructional) or choke, but mainly focusing on containing them inside the guard.
In the second roll, I did manage to get on top, so as this was a strong white belt, I moved into my favourite place in BJJ, a heavy side control. Although he wasn't going full force, when I had that crossface, I felt very comfortable holding them there on top. He was able to make some space a bit later on: as soon as you get that separation between your chest and theirs, side control gets harder to maintain. I tried to switch into scarf hold, but ended up getting rolled over. I moved straight back into guard during the transition, but that's a good reminder to make the switch from side control to scarf hold smoother. Also, I need to make the switch on my terms, rather than letting them dictate the pace by making all that space under side control.
Class #590 Artemis BJJ (Impact Gym), Dónal Carmody, Bristol, UK - 04/09/2014
Quick update from the Artemis BJJ website: the interview I did with Saulo Ribeiro is now up here. In regards to class tonight, I didn't get in much training, as I was helping out with teaching. Attendance was huge today, so we thought two instructors would be better than one (seeing as we were both there).
Still, while I didn't get to drill or spar, I was able to feel the technique in my usual role as Dónal's uke. You're on their back, attacking the turtle. When directly behind them, clamp your knees by their hips, then taking your feet off the floor, 'sit' on their thighs and sink your weight down and back (staying tight). That should cause their head to raise slightly, opening them up for attacks and your grips. Shifting to put your knee next to theirs, move round to the side and yank them towards you.
If they try to roll out over their shoulder and recover guard, reach through to far hip like last time. That escape motion was my main bit of drilling, while demonstrating it with Dónal : roll over your shoulder to get your guard back, swinging your legs in front of them. You're effectively rolling on the spot (pretty much the same motion as a breakfall, without the hand slapping part), as tight a turn as possible to recover your guard.
Class #537 RGA Aylesbury, (BJJ), Kev Capel, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, UK - 30/11/2013
I'm back in Aylesbury this weekend, part of my intention to get over there more regularly (ideally every couple of months on average across the year). Kev began by attacking the turtle, where he suggests you start off with a leg over their back. That makes it hard for them to roll back to guard over a shoulder, as you can follow them in either direction into side control or even the back.
Reach to grab a lapel (not too deep, or they will trap your arm and roll you), then pull them diagonally over their hip. Put in your hook as you do so, using the Marcelo hip extension if you need to open them up before inserting your second hook.
Having taken their back, go for the single arm short choke, something else Donal has covered in private lessons. They aren't going to let you have that easily and will block with both arms. Use your armpit hand to grab their wrist, shove it down, then bring your leg over the crook of their elbow. To secure that in place, hook your instep under their wrist.
They only have one hand left to defend their neck, but that can still be an annoyance. Switch your arms to try and wriggle it across their neck. They will almost certainly block that too by grabbing your arm. With your free hand, dig under their defending elbow, until you can reach inside and grab their wrist. Shove it down, keeping that for control. You can then finish your choke, either with a single arm, moving to a sliding choke, or a bow and arrow variation.
Do not be tempted to bring your leg over that arm too. That puts them into a deep half guard type position. They can use that to shrug off your legs and slip down out of your back control, meaning you lose a strong attacking position and possibly even puts them on top, if they react quickly. Never have both legs over.
Finally, for the other person, you can escape the turtle. Reverse engineering what you did earlier, don't let them get a leg over your back. Blcok that immediately by stepping your nearest leg next to theirs, hooking it ideally. Reach to grab their knee next to you, which will probably be raised. Avoid having your elbow high: instead, keep your arm in line with their leg. Shift your hip, spinning through to guard.
In terms of sparring, the tail-end of the warm-up was guard passage. On top, I wasn't having much luck except against white belts. Even there, I was being lazy and waiting for them to open their guard, then single stack passing around their side. The brown belts were sweeping me easily (I don't think I rolled with a purple at that point, but they would have no doubt swept me easily too).
On the few occasions I got underneath I had even less success, getting passed by everyone. Rolling with a blue, I couldn't get my deep collar grip established, eventually leading to him standing up than leg drag passing me. I need to consider ways to get the opening for the deep collar grip, because once I have it in properly it's a good control. Perhaps pull them in to get them to lean back and expose their neck? Or the opposite, hip bump so they come forward and bring the collar in range? Something to play with.
At the end, I got in a bunch of free sparring. I still can't get my deep grip: several people just moved their head around, which I think can be used to go for a funky baseball bat but it looks a bit flashy and has a sacrifice element to it I don't like. But worth trying, as that happened at least three or four times. Alternatively, I need to spend more time on getting a better grip, leaving less slack.
I sort of got the Akins hip shift sweep, but that was with a smaller partner. That put me in mount, where I used Donal's tips (via Roger Gracie) about getting in tight on mount. I moved up into the armpits and got their elbows in the air, then reached in past the arm to go for the back. That's where I messed up, as I wasn't tight enough to the shoulder with my chest, so ended up slipping off and putting myself in guard.
With a purple belt, I had to be wary of my feet, making sure I didn't put them past their hip where they could drop back for an achilles lock. I found myself on top half guard a few times: The control is not as good when I have my arm past their head, driving the elbow back, compared to a cross-face. However, there is a risk that they can escape as I try to switch from the first to the second, which I think happened during this roll once or twice.
I was looking for the kimura from there, but failed to isolate properly. When I did finally get an americana locked on, I no longer had strong enough positional control, as he was able to turn and escape. It was an enjoyable roll, as Stuart kept a steady, technical pace. I get the impression that he could have sped up and given me a much harder time. ;)
With another purple belt I was throwing up triangle attempts under side control. That's not a high percentage submission, but I get tempted to try it for control when their head is low and I have my legs around their far arm. It failed miserably the first time, but the second time helped me recover my guard.
On top with a bigger blue belt, I was practicing my side control maintenance again. It was a good reminder that I shouldn't get complacent about that: while I can hold a number of people my size or bigger white belts, if somebody more experienced and bigger is underneath, they can still roll me straight over (and I'm no doubt leaving some gaps for them to exploit there, so it's not purely a matter of strength).
I was pleased that earlier in the roll I managed to do a very slow back-step pass against de la Riva. I dropped my head to his hip then gradually shifted my weight back to stop him scooting underneath, until I could get an arm under the head and put myself into the familiar opposite side half guard passing position. Having said that, he was specifically working his guard as it's an area he doesn't go much, so somebody with a trickier de la Riva would probably have taken my back.
As always there was lots of sitting in the running escape not doing anything. That's something I've covered in a private with Donal, but as I end up there so frequently, it's important that I look at it with Kev too in a future private (in today's private, which was right after this lesson, we covered a different topic).
Class #499 Gracie Barra Bristol, (No-Gi), Miles Pearson, Bristol, UK - 18/04/2013
I've mentioned numerous times in the past that I'm not a big fan of nogi. Out of the 500 lessons of BJJ I've taken over the years, a mere 30 of them have been nogi. When I've gone to nogi, it has normally been because I had no choice as I couldn't make any other class in the schedule. That's exactly why I find myself in the GB Bristol nogi class: Thursdays and Tuesdays are still by far the best days for me to train, so as I now teach on Tuesdays, it looks like I'll be taking off the gi on Thursdays.
This time, I do at least have a new element to make it interesting: Leverage Submission Grappling. I've been to two of Nathan 'Levo' Leverton's seminars so far, which I will be using as a nogi syllabus to work through. Every time I train nogi, my main focus will be LSG techniques. Fortunately for me, tonight was straight out of the LSG playbook, with several techniques Levo taught back at the Leverage Grappling Seminar #03. Miles kicked off with the wrestler's sit-out (which Levo calls the 'peek out'). They are in front of you, with their arms past your armpits but not locked. Base on an elbow and the opposite foot, then knock back their same side arm with your non-basing elbow.
Bring your non-basing foot through right across to the opposite corner, getting your head up, then spin behind them. Your inside hand stays by the leg in case they try to run behind. Also make sure you are putting your weight onto them when you bring your head through. If your weight is sat on the floor, the person on top can simply put their head on the floor, bring their leg over and mount.
Miles combined this with the arm roll, which applies when they lock their arms around you. Of course, a good grappler isn't going to give you their arm like that when you're in turtle, but it is still worth knowing. Same position, but this time you reach back and lock their arm. Look in the direction of the wrapped arm, then drop your same side shoulder to the mat and roll them onto their back. Turn towards their legs to come on top (if you turn towards their head, they can take your back).
Miles finished off with defending the over-under. This is when you have a more knowledgeable opponent, who reaches under your neck with one arm and your armpit with the other. From there, they can move into chokes, so you don't want to hang around. Miles said that some people advocate the usual sit-out, but that he finds it doesn't work well for him. His preference is to drop to the mat, firmly gripping their arm, one leg back and the other curled up high.
That should mean you are now heavy because your centre of gravity is low, hopefully giving you time to work free of their grip. When drilling, Liam tested out some variations on the Peruvian neck tie (although I've heard of it, that was the first time I'd seen it in the flesh), which he thought might make that defence problematic, although trouble-shooting with Miles, the defence seemed sound.
I was nervous about sparring, as my groin injury decided to flare up again due to Tuesday (I didn't restrict myself as much, which was a mistake), but it turned out ok. Specific sparring from turtle gave me the chance to try and shift into Levo's front headlock position, but I was having trouble because we all had to start with that arm-wrapping grip. Although even if we hadn't started there, I would still have run into difficulty: I'm not settling my shoulder into their upper back properly, meaning they can still move forward and take out my legs.
Underneath I also had problems, again partially due to the grip. Normally if I'm in turtle I would be trying very hard to prevent them getting any kind of grip, with my elbows in tight. What I should have done was practice the escapes we'd learned, but I got overly fixated in attempting some tips from LSG #03, particularly the point on always shifting backwards to make them follow you then go for a leg.
Moving into free sparring, I was reminded yet again just how little I know about nogi. I really struggle to get any sort of grip in guard: not having lots of gi to grab makes a massive difference. That meant that instead, I was grabbing the head and failing to get over and underhooks. Keeping them tight is another high priority, which I need to work on. I have been to Levo's closed guard seminar, but would benefit from going again, along with his session on open guard.
I vaguely looked for deep half at one point, but as I don't use that in gi either, I just ended up curled close to their legs. That curled up position featured heavily when I sparred Luke too, this time facing the other way, in the running escape survival posture. I could defend from there, but because I was squashed on the mat, I couldn't do much else except work to block arms digging in. I was impressed by Luke's control, as despite being a huge guy, he took it nice and easy, staying technical even though I'm sure he could have just picked me up and thrown me across the room. ;)
My initial entry into Leverage Submission Grappling, a nogi system being codified by veteran UK instructor Nathan Leverton, was last year, with my team mate Steve. Steve kindly gave me a lift in 2012, but this time he wasn't able to go. I decided to take the opportunity to do some more CouchSurfing by coming up on the train the day before, as I had such a good experience in Dallas.
[I'm going to ramble a bit about CouchSurfing now, so if you don't care, scroll past the next three paragraphs ;D]
If you're not familiar with CouchSurfing, it is a social media website which people use to meet up and stay with each other. While that sounds rather bizarre to a lot of people, particularly those who do not spend much time on the internet, it's a process that works very well in practice. There are checks in place, such as a system of references and vouching to warn others if anybody turns out to be dodgy. Leicester was my second time staying with somebody, which I'm also hoping to do when I head over to the US later in the year.
My host this time was Dani, who very handily is only about a mile away from Leicester Shootfighters. After cycling over (the Google Navigation thing on my phone is fortunately quite thorough, so my total lack of a sense of direction didn't matter), it didn't take me long to work out the right house: flags from around the world were peeping out from behind the window. Dani has travelled to a LOT of countries! ;) She and her housemate Justyna greeted me with a big bottle of Becks and a tasty spaghetti meal.
Another CouchSurfer, Sara, was also there: just like in Dallas, there is a vibrant CouchSurfing community in Leicester. We headed out to a local shisha bar, followed by some excellent cheesy music at Hakamou (it was a bit full for dancing, unfortunately, though I could still have a good wiggle). While there we met two cool Canadian students (randomly, it turns out that Pete was well aware of BJJ, as he did some MMA and JKD back in Alberta), who Sara invited back to her flat where we all had a good chat until 4am. Slightly later than I was intending to get to bed, but Dani and Justyna are so hilariously entertaining that I was laughing too much to care. It's impossible to not have a good time with those two, so I'm looking forward to seeing them again before the next LSG seminar. Thanks for the great night out, CouchSurfers of Leicester! ;D
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There has been heavy snow this weekend, which prevented a few attendees from coming along to the seminar. Then again, that does have the positive outcome of more personal attention from Leverton, which is a good thing from a student perspective. As with LSG 04, LSG 03 kicked off with an introduction. Leverton handed out a sheet detailing the techniques to be taught today, again aiming to cover it all off within five hours.
The seminar proper began with around two hours on turtle top position. I rarely go anywhere near turtle, so although many of the techniques looked familiar, I can't think of the last time I used any of them in sparring. My main interest for this seminar was the back mount portion, but I knew that some focus on the turtle would be good for me, given I don't seem to use it much these days. Particularly in regards to turtle, there was a key difference between LSG 03 and LSG 04: wrestling. As LSG 04 was on the guard, the predominant influence was jiu jitsu, but for the turtle, wrestling provides an excellent base.
Leverton's first technique was defending against the person in turtle trying to grab your legs, as they will often be looking for a takedown. The simplest method of blocking that attack is to sprawl. Whether they have grabbed one or both of your legs, start by grabbing behind their armpit, the other hand going on their head (not their neck: aim for the end of the lever where they're weaker). Push their head towards the mat and then sprawl back. It's important you then square up.
When sprawling, you want to make sure you aren't jumping backwards, as that gives them the opportunity to complete their takedown. Instead, thrust your hips into them then slide down. The aim is to create a wedge with your body that means their forward momentum is dissipated. You can then establish a front headlock, shifting your head-hand to wrap around and grip their chin. Drive the point of your same side shoulder into the base of their neck, right where it meets their back. Similarly to the sprawl, this blocks them moving forwards.
Your other hand clamps onto their triceps, then slides down towards their elbow. Come up on your toes, getting your ear into their armpit on the triceps-gripping side. Lower your chin-grip side knee slightly, then pull back on their arm. From there you can go behind, with two main options. The meaner version seemed to be 'snapping' them (a term I've heard in regards to takedowns, but don't really understand in technical detail because I never work takedowns. Ever), driving with your shoulder first then dragging their arm back. The goal is to get them extended, so that it is difficult for them to react as you move around behind.
The nicer option is moving the arm on their chin to the other side of their head. The back of your hand is on their shoulder, while your arm is still pressed against their head. From there, move around. Leverton suggested this as a good option for when the person turtling is mainly trying to stay tight, rather than making any aggressive actions like a wrestler would. It therefore sounds like it could be a good option in the context of BJJ.
The standard way of maintaining control on top of turtle, or at least the option I'm familiar with, is sprawling out the legs connecting your hips. This is a bit like what Leverton called the 'side ride', which he noted was good for strikes (he should know, given he has a long history of training successful MMA fighters). Leverton prefers a different position, where he uses his forearms to create initial hooks before replacing them with his legs. Crouched directly behind them, brace your forearms into their hips (but not your elbows, or they can try to control them) and squeeze your knees into them.
This is just a transitional position, so don't stay there long. You aren't sprawled back from here because that is space they can move into. From here, twist around to one side. On one side, your forearm stays in as a hook on their hip. Leave a leg behind on that side too, still tight to their body. Your remaining arm reaches for their arm on the other side, joined by your other knee.
If there is space, you can just replace your forearm with your leg to insert your hooks. Note that for the second hook, you will have to turn your body before you can insert it, or you'll find the motion awkward. Most likely they won't let you do that and will stay tight. In that situation, Leverton suggested trying a tilt to back mount, with two options. At this point there was a degree of jiu jitsu influence again, as Leverton described these techniques as the 'Maia' and 'Marcelo' back takes respectively.
For the Maia, you're shifting diagonally into their bottom corner. Move your body backwards slightly, diagonally behind you and away from them on the arm-gripping side. Leave a small space, then pull them into that space. That will roll them over the knee you had on the arm-gripping side, ideally straight into back mount. You'll also want to establish a harness/seat-belt grip, with an arm over the shoulder and the other under the armpit.
By contrast, the Marcelo shifts forwards into their top corner. This is more difficult, as it feels like there are more parts to the motion. Start by jamming the knee on their arm-gripping side into the gap between their thigh and their arm (if they are tight there won't be much space, but digging your knee in should open it up). Sliding over their shoulder, drop onto your own shoulder, pushing off your leg to roll them onto you. A common mistake is to just leap over and hope your body weight will be enough to roll them, which almost certainly won't be the case: you need to be pushing off the mat with your leg. During that roll, pinch your knees around their leg to stop them walking through and escaping.
Next, swing the leg you have underneath around their leg to get your hook. You then want to bring your second hook in, which they may block. If they do, you still have one hook, which allows you to use Marcelo Garcia's 'hip extension'. Lock your feet together, then pull them towards you with your seat-belt grip and thrust your hips into their back. That should stretch them out, giving you the space to secure your second hook.
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After a short break, Leverton moved on to bottom turtle, which again was roughly two hours. I was initially nervous when I saw this was due to feature takedowns, as that was liable to exacerbate my groin injury, but fortunately the takedowns were from turtle and staying low, rather than a big lift and drop. The overarching theme for this section was making your turtle dangerous, rather than a purely defensive position.
The other major point was scooting backwards while in turtle. Bring one arm back at a time, to reduce your vulnerability. By moving backwards, this helps to extend your opponent and open up opportunities for attacking and escaping. That does mean you may mash your knees up drilling, as you're sliding them back and forth on the mats (especially if you are just wearing shorts so the skin is exposed), but meh. Hopefully my awesome Pony Club Grappling Gear spats will arrive at some point: the Yang seems to have gotten stuck in transit from Australia a couple of months ago (possibly customs? Or just Royal Mail being rubbish, as they are frequently crap with getting stuff to the office).
Keep your knees wide for base, elbows inside, then defending your neck with your hands (either Aisling's 'Shirley Temple' defence, or crossing your hands). You need to keep the person in front of you so that moving back becomes particularly effective. Leverton ran us through a quick drill, where the person on top just put their hands on your upper back while you were in turtle, the person on the bottom adjusting to stay facing them.
From here you can attack with a single leg, wrapping their leg and keeping your head on the inside, elbows tight, trying to bring their knee into your chest. This can be set up by backing away: even if they're sprawled, they are going to have to come forward to stay on top. To finish the takedown, keep your inside hand locked behind their knee, grabbing their ankle with the other. Pull that out, then move around, put the leg between your knees and bump them with your shoulder.
This combines well with the double leg. Should you get the opportunity, grab both legs, bring your head outside, drive with your outside leg and move on top. In many ways this was similar to how I've been taught to complete the side control escape to your knees. A detail I wasn't doing (or at least haven't emphasised) is sliding your other knee in. Like Roy Dean's takedown, Leverton pivots to the side rather than staying straight on, but wrapping both legs rather than using a knee block.
I'm familiar with the peek out, which I know as a wrestler's sit-out. Although when I say 'familiar', it isn't something I use a lot because I'm lazy and don't like to move very much. The situation is that they have made the mistake of wrapping arms by your hips. Base on an elbow and the opposite foot, then knock back their same side arm with your non-basing elbow.
Bring your non-basing foot through right across to the opposite corner, getting your head up, then spin behind them. Your inside hand stays by the leg in case they try to run behind. Also make sure you are putting your weight onto them when you bring your head through. If your weight is sat on the floor, the person on top can simply put their head on the floor, bring their leg over and mount.
I prefer the arm roll, which I think I first learned during my very brief stint of judo way back, as a set up for waki-gatame. Of course, a good grappler isn't going to give you their arm like that, but it is still worth knowing. Same position, but this time you reach back and lock their arm. Look in the direction of the wrapped arm, then drop your same side shoulder to the mat and roll them onto their back. Turn towards their legs to come on top (if you turn towards their head, they can take your back).
The sit back to guard is another basic option I'm used to, but it turns out that I have been doing this wrong. This is not the same as trying to pull guard off a takedown attempt. As Leverton noted, jiu jitsu guys can get away with that as their opponents don't normally know how to hold the top turtle position properly or perform a decent double or single leg, at least by comparison to a wrestler. Instead of pulling guard, you are sliding over your leg. Do not kick out your leg: just rock back into guard. Leverton came over several times to correct my positioning, so clearly I have some bad jiu jitsu habits to iron out.
Once I do, this could be very useful for escapes I use all the time, especially the running escape. Which is cool, as I've been struggling to finish that escape properly (as opposed to just stalling with the running escape) for ages. I'm looking forward to seeing if I can incorporate Leverton's details, along with the scoot back Geraldine did the last time I taught the running escape. Although as you can see from the picture, the scenario is somewhat different, so perhaps it isn't entirely relevant.
To perform a front headlock escape, there were two versions, early and late. If you can control that arm before they secure it around your neck (this therefore also applies to guillotines and the like when you're in turtle). Grab their wrist and push it down to the floor, then run your head up the outside of their arm until your reach their shoulder.
If you're late and they've managed to get a bit deeper, the focus will still be on that arm. Reach for the elbow of the arm they have by the neck and try to pull it down into your chest. Use the kind of motion as if you were climbing a rope, hand over hand. After you've secure it towards your chest, switch your knees and step around, reaching an arm around their back. This ends up looking a bit like an arm drag.
Leverton took the opportunity here to make some comments about what he called 'sport jiu jitsu'. I know what he means, but it's a term I dislike: I associate it with the marketing campaign to separate 'self defence' and 'sport' BJJ into two distinct styles, which I think is a false dichotomy: that came up again recently here and I also babble about it extensively here.
He basically said that currently in elite BJJ competition, you will see double-guard pulls where top jiu jitsu competitors fight to grab each other's feet. That looks ridiculous even to an educated viewer. Leverton far prefers to get on top, smash with wrestling and look to submit. Given I'm assuming I was one of the few jiu jitsu people in the room, I kinda feel I have to respond. ;p
Not that I disagree with any of that: I don't like the manner in which some competitors currently aim to play footsie either. I also have absolutely no interest in 50/50 and similarly over-complicated guards, aside from countering them with as simple a pass as possible. The main point I want to make - and I'm sure Leverton is fully aware of this - is that there are lots of people within jiu jitsu saying the same thing. For example, Xande Ribeiro, amongst the greatest competitors of all time and still active in major tournaments today. Speaking to Inside BJJ, Xande stated in #58:
Double guard pull? This is insane. You watch a match, and seven minutes is in the same position. [...] You see fights, black belt fights, seven minutes in a position that is not an end, you know? There's a beginning, there's a middle, but no finish.
I even hear people say, "Well, what if you mount the guy for three minutes..." Yeah buddy, I'm mounted on you. That's totally different. I am in a dominant position. But when you are in a position where the only thing that you can do is a toe hold, get an advantage, or maybe an armbar that some people do from there, that's it. What else is in there? I didn't go to a tournament to have someone fight for their life to wrap their legs around my leg and stay there for eight minutes.
I tell people, grab my fricking arm and pull my arm for ten minutes! Pull my neck for ten minutes! Do not pull my leg and wrap around it tight. That's not the jiu jitsu I teach for my students. Double guard pull? What is this double guard pull? All of a sudden jiu jitsu is two guys fighting for the bottom? I don't really appreciate it, it's ugly, it's bad.
People should be a little more proud and think "I'm a bad ass passer. I'm going to pass your legs, go around to your side, hold on to you and you're going to suffer." I think that should be more the mentality, not just a sweeping art. "Ok, I sweep you, then I stall and I get two advantages, then I sit my butt on the floor again."
I wasn't raised like that. I'm from a time when you could slam in jiu jitsu, you could reap the knee. People fought for the finish, points were just consequences of your work.
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Back mount lasted around an hour, brought over from another seminar in the series that was overly long. Starting with the top, lower body control discussed hooking your feet inside. Bring your knees up higher to shorten the length of your legs, as this will provide less space for their escape. Tense the hamstring if they roll, following them over remaining stuck to their back.
Upper body control looked at the seat-belt grip, also known as the harness, which is the basic over the shoulder and under the armpit grip. Leverton prefers to cover his choking hand with his armpit hand: as I've discussed in the past, there are various opinions on the best option. Some instructors teach that covering with the armpit hand means you can go straight to the choke if they try to knock it off. Others prefer having the choking hand on top, so that you already have that immediate route to the neck.
The body triangle depends a lot on both your body type and that of your partner. In my case, I'm quite flexible, but there was no way I was locking my short legs around my partner, who was a fair bit bigger than me (even with Leverton's handy tip about opening your hips by turning your toes downwards).
Next up was a few tips I recognised from Marcelo Garcia, as these are both techniques I've taught in the past and had success with in rolling, based off Marcelo Garcia's material. Marshal Carper, who was among the co-authors for Garcia's book, produced a handy video detailing the techniques in combination. First there is moving them from side to side with your legs, particularly if you have them on the choking side and they try to roll away, then secondly there is the 'hip extension' method for opening up space to insert your second hook (covered more briefly earlier in the seminar).
Leverton also examined the standard transition to full mount if you're losing the back, which looked familiar to how I've seen it taught elsewhere (lock your heel to their far hip and swivel around), althrough I don't normally grab the arm. That's a useful detail to keep in mind.
Leverton then moved into two submissions (incidentally, it was cool that Leverton focused on controlling position rather than loads of submissions, in contrast to numerous other seminars). I have taught the rear naked choke a number of times, but was looking forward to Leverton's version, hoping to learn some useful tweaks. Leverton did not disappoint, providing simple details that could make a huge difference. The most important distinction is the way he places his locking arm, so that it becomes more involved in the choke.
It is entirely possible most other instructors do this, but it is not something that I can remember being emphasised. Set-up the choke in the usual way, bringing your choking arm around their neck with your elbow under their chin and your body tight. The second arm locks up with the elbow in front of their shoulder, not behind. Both of your armpits are therefore resting on their shoulders.
That minor shift in position makes it a lot tighter, along with the considerable advantage of hiding both your wrists (which they now can't grab). Leverton noted that while there are lots of ways of finishing off the choke, such as expanding your chest (which I like to do), you have your arms around their neck so squeeze those before anything else.
Leverton's variation reminded me of the palm to palm lock Kesting does to walk his arm into position. It is also something I've seen on Demian Maia's DVD, where you are essentially choking them with one arm. This is useful if for some reason you can't get that second arm into place, though it is naturally not as strong a choke as when you can get both arms locked in for a true RNC.
If they tuck their chin, you can bring your arm over the head for a nasty Neil Adams style armbar from the back, which involves a vicious grip that is almost a bicep slicer. If for some reason you haven't heard of Neil Adams, he has two Olympic silver medals in judo and is very, very good at armbarring people. When Adams tells you how to do an armbar, you should listen extremely closely. ;)
Grab their wrist, then reach your other arm over. Grab their wrist with that other hand, whereupon you can switch your first grip to your own wrist, securing a figure four grip. Drop to your shoulder, swinging around: as you do, bring your leg across their hips, swinging the other leg out. This spin should be the same kind of motion as when you spin for an armbar from guard (I've always sucked at armbars from guard, so wasn't very fluid at this).
Hook the swinging leg over their head, so the back of your calf is pressing into their face/temple rather than their neck (for the same reason as a Thai clinch, because holding higher on the head is harder for them to resist than gripping by their neck.) Move your arm deeper, so that instead of grabbing your wrist, you're now grabbing nearer your elbow. Curl your wrists up and you can also turn the hand nearer you elbow upwards.
Straighten your leg into their head as you apply pressure with your arms. Speaking from experience, this feels horrible. I would be tapping long before the actual armbar. If your opponent is tougher than me (which is highly likely), use that hold to unlock their hands (which they will normally clamp together to defend the armbar), then drop back for the submission.
You can briefly see Neil Adams himself use the grip in this video, which is from another seminar at Leicester Shootfighters:
Leverton's demonstration of back mount escapes was quick by comparison to the rest of the seminar, beginning with some basic survival details, such as hand placement on the neck. Again, you can use the 'Shirley Temple/Home Alone' or the hands crossed over the neck. Elbow inside, knees up, keeping your abs tight. You can then move into the escape, which was a fairly standard drop to the side and shrimp.
It was essentially the same version Xande demonstrates on his DVD set. Leverton calls it the 'scrape escape'. Drop to your side, bringing your knee in, then lift and pop their knee off with your hip, just like Xande. Shrimp out pushing on their leg, ready to move into guard should they try to move on top, as people normally will attempt. If they've got a choke in the early stages, it is especially important to get your head and shoulders to the mat to reduce their efficacy.
You can also turn to your knees, using the same motion as if you're escaping from under side control to your knees. This is useful for when they've locked their legs in a sort of 'side-on back mount', making it hard to complete the usual escape. If you can drop your elbow, then there is a chance you can thread one leg under the other, turning on the spot to come up in their guard. Leverton also mentioned escaping the body triangle using a similar motion to the scrap escape (personally I just step over their foot and bridge into their locked feet, as he demonstrated, but it as he said it's good to keep practicing that scrape escape motion).
I realised at the end that I had been drilling with Jake from Fighting at Forty blog, which is a good site I've been reading recently. I love meeting fellow bloggers whose work I enjoy, which was therefore a cool way to end the seminar. I'm looking forward to making more of them, which will also mean I can get in some more CouchSurfing fun. All in all, great weekend, particularly as when I got home, I saw that the GrappleThon has now raised over £4000 for Rape Crisis! :D
